It's absolutely worth it for me. I save at least $79/yr on not making trips to the store that I'd otherwise make. And I probably save ANOTHER $79/yr on not trying to find filler items to make a $25 order. I buy lots of stuff other than books. Personal care items, grocery items, electronics, household items, flip-flops. I always check Amazon for stuff I need. Today I was at the store and thought about getting something for ds. I used the iPhone Amazon app to look it up, and, sure enough, I can get it from Amazon for less and it will be at my house on Friday. Mine just renewed for year 3...loving it.

Am I the only one who noticed he looks like Orlando Bloom?

When I saw your thread title, I thought you were going to ask what to do with it because it's so nasty. Sorry...that's what my family thought! I bought 2 boxes last year thinking we would love it. Couldn't eat the first box, made as pudding. I saved the 2nd box and finally "hid" it in a bundt cake mix that needed a package of pudding. It worked well and gave it a nice spicy flavor. I'm glad you like it - I figured someone did, or they wouldn't keep selling it!

I don't like Antonio Banderas because of his affair with Melanie Griffith while she was married to Don Johnson. :( He might be hot, but I can't be attracted to a man who I know did something like that.

I am Christian. If you were in my family, I would not have a problem with either of your solutions (to continue to "participate", or not). If you choose not to, I would mention it to a couple of people BEFORE prayer time that you/your family will not be praying because of your belief. As long as you are not planning on chowing down on the food while they pray, I don't think it's rude. :)

Yeah, they forgot someone...Mr. Thornton!!

This happened to us, too. We had had Netflix for a long time w/ no problems. Then we moved to a different neighborhood and suddenly movies started disappearing. I went to the PO and complained to the manager. He apologized and gave me his business card to contact him if there were more issues. All the movies showed up on time after that. :)

As a woman, with children... I would never be in the military. *Especially* if I were a single mother. Military service is incompatible with single-custodial-parenthood. When my dad was stationed overseas, there was an incident that led everyone to believe all dependents needed to leave the country immediately. My mom, sis, and I got ready. A young single female sailor with a toddler was going to have to send her child state-side with another mom. She flipped out and made a hysterical scene at the mere thought of not being able to leave with her child. Lucky for all of us, the incident blew over and we didn't have to leave. It was 25 years ago but I still remember that sailor's reaction - she was far more worried about her child leaving, than she was about her military job. I will say it again: Military service is incompatible with single-custodial-parenthood.

I know what you're talking about...but that doesn't sound like this woman. She actually wants the babies to get fed...but she won't do it! She lets her mother, husband, and "volunteers" do it all night long.

This is the most shocking part of your story. You should have led off with this instead of the stuff about the lunches. What kind of mother won't feed her preemies between 11PM and 8AM? I can't think of a reason other than severely disabling PPD or other mental illness, or evil.

Nope, there is a strong hereditary factor for melanoma. My mother had it and so did I, and we both have the nasty scars to prove it. Neither of us were sun-worshipers, although neither of us were too careful in our youth about staying out of the sun. Both my kids have had moles removed; one of them had an "a-typical" (read: pre-cancer) result. We live in Southern California which my dermatologist calls the skin cancer capital of the world. My kids and I avoid the sun when possible, but also wear sunscreen on any exposed part of our bodies when we will be outside for any length of time. I *KNOW* my kids are at risk for melanoma and it could kill them in their 30s (when my mom and I both got ours). I don't *know* that there is any risk to chemical sunscreens, and believe the risk of melanoma is much higher than the risk of death by sunscreen. Edited to emphasize that we use physical sun blocking when possible - both my kids wear rash-guards in the pool or at the beach. We wear caps at Disneyland. We find shade wherever possible. But, still...we apply sunscreen to the leftover areas.

OK, I am in a public place (Starbucks) waiting for my daughter...trying so hard not to laugh out loud at these. I'm sure the employees are wondering why I keep wiping the tears from my eyes...

I was just checking out some of these blogs - fascinating, thanks for sharing! But then I started following links to links to links, and ended up here: Food Stamps and got mad. If I were on food stamps, I could spend $668 per month on food. I spend 1/3rd less than that.

We live near a processing center and volunteered last year. My dd and I were assigned to inspect boxes. Here are some things I'd suggest based on what we saw: 1. Please know that every box is inspected at least twice. Don't put in ANYthing that's prohibited. First, the box is searched for money. Those inspectors are looking for the donation envelope, but also any "extra" money that the donor might have tried to hide. (They don't want any money in the boxes because it can be dangerous for the children to have the money). Then, the box is inspected again for items that are on the prohibited list. We had to remove lots of chocolate, toy guns, and liquid soap (shampoo) items. Please don't put those items in! Most of the shampoo-type items were zipper-baggied, as if the donors thought that would make it OK. It didn't! We had to remove them. At least they weren't being thrown away - they were being sent to local shelters, etc. But they aren't going to the children receiving the box. 2. If at all possible - fill your box. Some boxes were filled to the brim, and others only had a couple of items. We weren't allowed to re-distribute anything. So it would be nice if you could add some inexpensive filler items. 3. Soap and a washcloth are nice. I suggest Ivory or another mild soap. Every time we got to a box with Irish Spring, we knew it before we opened the box. The scent permeated everything in the box! Thank you so much to all of you who are doing this. It's a wonderful ministry. We prayed for all the children as we were inspecting the boxes. My kids and I had never filled boxes before, but I just picked ours up at church today. We'll be putting in pencils & a sharpener, socks, ivory soap & washcloth, toothbrush & toothpaste, non-choc candy, and some gender-specific toys or other items (hair accessories for the girls, etc.). This year my son is old enough to volunteer at the processing center so we are all going. We heard testimonies about how life-changing it can be for the children who receive the boxes. Did I mention it's a wonderful ministry? :)

Put me in the "dingy" camp. Our clothes were noticeably less clean after going through one batch of homemade. I went back to Tide. With Tide, I can use less than the recommended amount and it still cleans and freshens our clothes. So it's not expensive - I wait for sales & coupons, and spend about $6/month.

I agree with this. I had a friend come over and she was BRUTAL. I still argued with her a bit - "But I *need* that!" - but it was very helpful to have an unemotional opinion on some of the stuff. The financial motivator was also very strong for me. The binding estimate we got was on a per-pound rate, so if it came in lower, we'd be charged less. I think it was 30 cents a pound or something like that. So every book went through the thought process, "Is it worth 30 cents to move this?" (Of course, 3 years and 2 more moves later, I'm still getting rid of books I should have tossed then...). The irony was that even though I got rid of hundreds of books and truckloads of other stuff, our actual moving weight still came in higher than the estimate. So we were charged the estimated cost, which had been guaranteed not to come in higher. I guess he padded it by 20% up front. :(

That doesn't sound right; I would look into it some more. I think the offenses were far more serious than parking tickets if there was a gun. We see lots of orange-vested "work gangs" that are obviously doing community service on Saturdays, picking up litter, etc. I've never seen an guy with a gun for those types. In my lifetime, I've seen a couple of "work gangs" that were obviously more serious offenders - doing roadwork in remote areas, etc. And there *was* a sheriff with a gun standing nearby.

Let me start by saying I always respect other parents' wishes as to what their child can eat. And add that I am not suggesting that anybody in this thread is dishonest or participating in the behavior I am about to describe. But, I personally know two families who overstate/dramatize/or just plain fabricate "allergies" or "sensitivities" to foods. They expect me and others in groups or social situations to accommodate their "needs", but when it suits them, they eat whatever the heck they like. I know families who are sincerely and conscientiously gluten-free, or sugar-free, or nitrite-free, etc. But these two families PLAY at it, and expect others to play along, and aren't consistent when it isn't convenient for them. I've lost respect for both of them, and, as I mentioned, if I were responsible for their children, I would feed them as the parents wished...but in group situations I don't consider their preferences anymore. Sorry. If they can't eat what I bring, too bad.

Anybody else have Viggo as their computer desktop background?? I switch between him and Richard Armitage/Guy of Gisbourne. :)

I thought of a couple more things after reading all the replies! As Erica said - no more running around to different stores looking for a sale; I'd shop at one or two nice places. And I think it's funny that so many of you mentioned CHEESE! How could I have missed that? No more mild cheddar for us; it would be Vermont extra-sharp aged white cheddar around here! And cambozola, and fresh mozzarella, and I'd buy my kids those cute babybel cheeses that they're always asking for, instead of cheap-o mozzarella sticks. This has been fun, but I need to run out to the store for something I need for tomorrow, and I'm afraid to...I'm afraid I'll go wild! :001_smile:

My dd takes classes at a nearby CC which has an "honors" program which is supposed to make transfers into universities easier, among other things. The other benefits I can see are smaller class sizes, and the fact that the students are more likely to be serious, transfer-oriented students. HOWEVER - I'm less than impressed with the only class I've investigated. At this school, the instructors have a lot of leeway in deciding how to teach the freshman-level English classes (comp and rhetoric). Every class section, therefore, has a different reading list. In looking at the two honors composition sections - the reading list for one is comprised entirely of graphic novels! This is for an HONORS section. The other section has books listed with which I'm not familiar, but they appear to be thought-provoking non-fiction selections. Taking a comp class based on graphic novels seems such a step back for a student who is used to analyzing Shakespeare...

After reading the latest grocery savings thread, I wondered how I could possibly quintuple the amount I'm spending on groceries for my family. It's quite a fantasy. :) Breakfast would always include smoked salmon, Canadian bacon, or thick-cut applewood-smoked bacon. Eggs would be cage-free organic. For salads, I'd buy mixed field greens - arugula, radicchio, etc - instead of plain old romaine every day! Lunches would be roast beef on focaccia, or Italian subs, or any $7/pound lunch meat instead of the plain-jane ham and turkey lunch meats. Maybe rotisserie chicken in a waldorf chicken salad, yum. I'd never substitute margarine for butter in baking... We'd eat more steak and seafood and not care what's on sale. More of a variety of fruits and vegetables, not just limited to what's on sale that week. Although I'd still stick with in-season produce just for freshness. I'd buy fresh baked goods at a bakery - yummy breads & pastries. Oh, and I'd give up 2-buck Chuck! That's all I can think of; what would you do? I need to go buy a lottery ticket now so I can fulfill all of my food fantasies. :)

Cleaning supplies can't be that much. I have a large home (5 bathrooms which get cleaned at least weekly!) and probably spend about $25/month on cleaning supplies. That would include laundry & dish detergent purchased about once a month, and no more than twice a year I have to restock each of the following at Costco: paper towels, windex, soft scrub, & clorox clean-up. I live in a high food cost area. I couldn't spend $2500/month on food, pet food, and cleaning supplies for my family if you told me I had to! We could eat out at almost every meal for that amount. Something is really wrong to be spending $2500/ month. I spend about $500, and we eat fairly well - seafood only about 1x a week, though, and I buy what's on sale. If snapper's on sale, we eat that; tomorrow we're having salmon b/c that's on sale...

Gas. I started worrying about this after hurricanes Katrina and Rita; seeing the evacuees unable to gas up their cars as they tried to get out. So I started re-filling my gas tank every time it got down to half a tank. I did that for a long time - a year or so. Now I'm not as neurotic about it, but try to gas up when it's down to 1/4 tank.

We stay in a cabin over Christmas/New Years every year. At night the temp can drop into the fifties inside. We stay warm - REALLY warm - layering the following: flannel sheets a fleece blanket a down comforter a quilt on top of the comforter I always start off wearing socks & flannel PJs to bed, but get so warm that I sometimes slip them off.